Friday, May 30, 2008

Oblogatory

Everyone has a blog now days. Artists, politicians, clergy, kids, grandparents. Anyone can put their thoughts out there for the world, or a predefined designated section there of, to see. They all have an agenda of some kind. Most are a simple vehicle to shout out to the world, “here I am”, and this is what I had for dinner yesterday. I think that’s great. So when I began to feel like I should be participating in this media phenomena, I found I was really at a loss as to what I would say, or why! Did I really need to have my own blog? A couple of years ago one of my friends told me I needed to be on My Space. He had a page and he suggested this was a good way to network and stay in touch. I was pretty happy with email, but I put up a page to have another way to keep up with some of my favorite people, even if it was on a slightly less personal level. I would, and still do, check out their new ideas, photos and projects. I have to admit I have some very cool friends. They all seem to be much more self motivated than I am. Ticks me right the EEEF off most of the time: ) I have never really had any interest in contributing to the content of my own space. It sits there with a few comments and a couple of things about me, just the bare bones requirements so I can login in and type messages at my buddies. Pretty lame really, you would think I might spend an afternoon and spruce it up a bit. Say-la-vee. (If you haven’t noticed spelling and grammar are not well honed instruments in my arsenal. I was a frigging art major for god’s sake, just keep your high-falutin word smithing comments to yourself will ya!) Guess I had better put in a paragraph break here someplace. (See previous comments Shakespeare! I can hear your thoughts!)

So then it came to me the other night while making dinner for “the boy”. (He’s two, and the most amazing thing that ever happened to me by the way). Some guy was on the local news because nine months ago he started eating at a burrito place twice a day to see if he could loose weight. He did, and a lot! He was pretty much the same size as I am now. 6 foot, 270ish. A BIG fella would be an accurate description. The idea that he lost weight eating rice and beans wasn’t surprising to me. I drooped 50 pounds in a couple of months when I moved to Colorado, ate home made tex-mex, and went mountain biking every day. Stands to reason,… no real secret. Eat healthy and exercise A LOT, and you will be skinny. In fact, eat crap and exercise A LOT, and you will stay slim. Never seen a fat bike currier,. EVER. I ate my share of corn dogs for breakfast when I was out West too. But I had a three hour lunch/ski break everyday at my job. (The only way they could keep a staff working from open till close and not pay over time. No one was complaining, because the skiing was great!). Problem is you can only live on 6 bucks an hour for so long. A job with that kind of mandated exercise was not in my future, nor most peoples. No, what this newscast did was remind me of an idea I placed on the back burner a long time ago, and it made me think about my son.

You only have so much time on this planet. I’d like to believe in some kind of afterlife or next level of awareness, but I have never really believed that’s the way it works. I mean I hope there’s more, but I’m not willing to waste the time I’ve got banking on it. Guess that make’s me agnostic. In the last couple of months I have slowly started making life and health changes, to hopefully prolong the time I have on this planet to spend with my family. I’ve cut out alcohol and I’m working on smoking. (I own all the vices brothers and sisters) I have also been waking from a motivational and creative slump. A long one. I think I may have the beginnings of an idea that will feed both pursuits, and a blog might be the perfect medium. Stay tuned. Send witty comments about my writing skills if you live more than an hours drive. I can’t afford the gas to come beat you with my artistic license, you should be safe.